Seasonal recipe: Hazelnut-cranberry stuffing

This stuffing recipe from one of MNN's own is a tasty change from your ordinary Thanksgiving stuffing.

I’ve got one last cranberry recipe for you. It’s the Thanksgiving stuffing recipe that Hope Dlugozima, MNN’s vice president and director of community and social networking, created about 10 years ago. When one of her relatives insisted that there was no better stuffing than Pepperidge Farm from the bag, Hope set out to prove that theory wrong. She adapted a recipe from "Joy of Cooking" and came up with this winner.

This stuffing can be cooked outside the turkey or stuffed inside the bird. If you are going to stuff it in the turkey, the USDA recommends that you stuff the bird loosely immediately before cooking and cook until the internal temperature of the turkey AND stuffing is 165° F.

Ingredients

1 largeonion, chopped

4 tbspbutter

2/3 cuphazelnuts, roughly chopped

1/2 cup fresh or dried cranberries

1 loaf rustic bread (a 1 lb. size)

A handful of parsley, chopped

2 cupschicken or turkey broth

finely grated zest of 1 lemon

olive oil, for drizzling

salt

pepper

Time Estimates

Prep time: 30 min

Cook time: 1 hr

Total time: 1 hr 30 min

Directions

If using dried cranberries, put the cranberries in a bowl and cover with hot water for about an hour.

If you’re cooking the stuffing outside the turkey, heat the oven to 375°F and oil a 9x13-inch baking dish.

Remove the crust from the bread and cut the bread into 3/4-inch chunks.

In a large bowl, combine the bread, olive oil, salt, pepper. Arrange the bread cubes in a single layer on baking sheet and toast them until lightly browned.

Melt the butter in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onions and cook until softened, 1 to 2 minutes.

In a large bowl mix the bread, cranberries, onions, hazelnuts, parsley, and lemon zest. Stir in the broth. Toss well to combine; the bread should absorb most of the broth.

Season to taste with salt and pepper.

If cooking separately, spread the stuffing in the prepared dish and cover with foil. Bake for 25 minutes; then remove the foil and bake until crusty and golden, about 35 minutes more.

If stuffing the turkey, put the stuffing in the bird right before cooking and cook until the internal temperature is 165° F.

Yield

Enough to stuff a large turkey

Hope’s notes

If you want to stuff the turkey but you have people who are concerned about the safety, put half the stuffing in the turkey and cook the other half separately.

The original recipe called for pecans, but since Hope was living in Portland, Ore., the hazelnut capital of the world, when she first started using this recipe, she chose the local nuts. If you’d prefer pecans, go ahead and switch them out.

She’s also switched out the cranberries for dried cherries in the past.

Depending on the consistency, you may need to use a tablespoon or so more of butter.

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